KHINO ESCAPES. 283 



at which he scuttled along proved his wounds to have been 

 slight. 



On returning to it, the covert from which we had started 

 the rhinoceros was thoroughly examined, and found to exhibit 

 marks of a pretty long residence, completely verifying the 

 villagers' story. It was a strange lair for an animal so 

 shy and suspicious, being small in extent, open on three sides, 

 and bounded by the river on the fourth. Directly opposite 

 and across the water was a hamlet which we visited that 

 afternoon to institute further inquiries regarding these 

 animals, and were told that they were occasionally to be seen 

 on that bank of the river a little further south, and that our 

 friend of the morning was the first and only one known to 

 have crossed it to the west bank, in which direction the 

 country was open and cultivated ; but he had done so some 

 time ago, and had shown himself often below the bank when 

 he bathed and disported himself in the river. 



This beast looked a particularly fine specimen of his 

 species, and his spoor proved that also ; the horn, however, 

 did not strike us as large. His speed across the fields caused 

 as much surprise as his timidity. No doubt the sudden ap- 

 pearance of the elephants, creatures altogether new to him, 

 had proved a shock to his nerves, and made him the poltroon 

 he proved to be, for the rhinoceros of the Soonderbuns knows 

 nothing of any animal larger than himself, being in this 

 respect unlike those of Assam and the Terai, which are in 

 the habit of meeting with wild elephants very frequently. 

 Had a lucky shot broken a leg bone he might have been 

 overtaken and slain, but failing that, or a bullet striking 

 some soft place, his escape was inevitable. 



Seeing how little they are disturbed, and how rarely 

 killed by " Shikarees " and others, these great beasts must be 

 multiplying fast in the wilderness of the Soonderbuns, for 

 they have no foe to dread but man, and must be so accli- 

 matised to the unwholesome climate as never to have had 

 the attention of the Sanitary Commissioner of Bengal directed 

 to their unhappy surroundings. Probably tigers and crocodiles 



